Raising Dragons by Jerdine Nolen

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Raising Dragons by Jerdine Nolen

• Theme 3

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Awards

• The Christopher Award
• Smithsonian Magazine Notable Book for Children
• Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award
• Bank St. College Best Childrens Books of the Year

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Genre Fantasy

• A fantasy is a type of incredible story that has
  characters and events that could occur in real
  life combined with those that could not.
• Something that is incredible is amazing,
  unbelievable, or not likely to happen.

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Summary

• A young girl hatches and raises Hank, a dragon,
  on her familys farm. Hank helps out, but soon
  the girl realizes she has to find him a new home.
  She says good-bye to Hank on Dragon Island, but
  returns to the farm with a new batch of dragon
  eggs. After all, raising dragons is in her blood.

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Background Information

• Dragons are imaginary creatures in the reptile
  family. They can fly and breathe fire.

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Key Concept

• living and working on a farm

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Key Vocabulary

• appetite
• chores
• harvested
• hitched
• plow
• sown
• tended

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appetite
the desire for food hunger
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chores
everyday jobs or responsibilities around a home
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harvested
picked and brought in a crop
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hitched
fastened an animal to a piece of farm equipment
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plow
to turn over dirt, often in long rows, so that
seeds can be planted
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sown
planted seeds
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tended
took care of
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Strategy Focus Predict/Infer

• We predict/infer before we read to help us make a
  reasonable guess about what might happen.
• This strategy helps our mind use prior knowledge
  and story clues to help us understand what will
  happen in the story.

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Strategy Focus Predict/Infer
Lets try it!

• Read the title. Predict what you think this
• story will be about? (Be specific!)

or
Since the girl is holding the dragon on the
cover, what can you infer about him?
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Comprehension Skill Focus Drawing Conclusions

• When you draw a conclusion, you will use details
  from the story to form a general idea not
  specifically stated.
• This skill is not a guess, but rather based on
  specific examples and details the author tells
  you in the story or by using the illustrations
  that accompany the text.
• For example, we see wings on the dragon in the
  picture on the title page, and we know wings are
  used to fly, so we can draw the conclusion that
  dragons fly.

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Graphic Organizer
Fill in the organizer with details from the story.
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Meet the Author

• What's it like to be one of eight children in a
  family? Jerdine Nolen knows! She says that as a
  child, she had to have a good sense of humor
• because she didn't have much space. Also,
  since there was always something to do and people
  to do it with, she was never bored.
• Jerdine Nolen is still quite busy. She is
  an author, a wife, a mother (of two), and a
  teacher. She loves writing and is happy to have
  her stories edited. She likes having an editor
  who cares enough about her work to want to make
  it better.
• (from www.eduplace.com)

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Link to Houghton Mifflin

• If you enjoyed reading Raising Dragons and
  would like to check out some more information and
  activities, click below to go to
  www.eduplace.com, Houghton Mifflins web site.

Click Here!